How to Personalize your Headsweats

The Materials

Twas the night before Wineglass, and all the runners were preparin’
To run an epic 26.2 miles, without a single bonkin’

Based upon past experiences as a spectator and what I’ve read from other runners and their experiences in a marathon, I knew I wanted to have my name somewhere on me for spectators to yell to give me extra motivation, particularly in the later miles. I didn’t want to ruin my tank with ink. Runners have commented that using tape to spell out your name didn’t work as well in the later miles because the tape lost its stickiness and fell off.

After a bit of thinking, I decided to personalize an old Headsweats visor. I visited my favorite arts supply and crafts store in Brooklyn, Artist & Craftsman, to buy some supplies.

I got a couple of fabric paint pens with a fat nib because I wanted to make thick strokes. I’m sure Sharpies would have worked just as well. Then I bought some decorations to bling out the visor: adhesive jewels, seed beads, and feathers. I already owned fabric glue from a prior crafting project.

Tricked out Headsweats visor

I wrote my name across the peak. The brand of fabric paint pens I used runs a little (the blue more than the black one). It didn’t bother me much because I intended to go over the lines to make thicker letters. But this is something to keep in mind if you planned on doing more delicate detailing. Personally I think think thinner more delicate details would be difficult to carry out and you’re better off planning on less ornate details. I messed up a little and didn’t have my name perfectly centered, but it was okay because I glued a couple of feathers on the side there was more blank space.

I drew the Wineglass logo (a wineglass with a runner as the stem) on the visor on one side. I glued some red seed beads as the “wine” rather than buying a red fabric paint pen because I thought it would be sparklier and more fun to have the beads.

Proudly wearing my visor

Then on the other side I glued some adhesive jewels on the visor, again just for fun and more bling. I did all this the night before. By morning, the glue was perfectly dried. I proudly wore the visor and got several compliments from other runners.

The beads, feathers, and jewels withstood the 26.2 miles of pounding and sweating. In fact I credit a portion of my 3:54:04 success at Wineglass to the Headsweats visor.

Obviously with all the sweating, the visor very badly needed to be washed. I washed the visor the way I normally do (soaking it in some mild detergent with hot water). Fabric glue does not like being in hot water (I have no idea if results would have been different with cold water). The beads, jewels, and feathers fell off. The blue ink ran a bit more, but the lettering is still quite good and my name is legible. I decided that I’m not going to re-glue old decorations (Only the adhesive jewels were saved. The feathers were ruined. The seeds beads were lost in the water.). I’ll be running a Christmas themed race in December and I’ll be re-using this visor by decorating it with small jingle bells. I’ll very much be in the Christmas mood (or heartily sick of jingling) by the end of the race. Check back to see what the visor looks like in December.